MEXICO CITY — The first hurricane of the eastern Pacific season brushed past the coastal shoulder of southwestern Mexico Monday, keeping just off shore while sweeping the coast with heavy rains and winds that raised the threat of flash floods and mudslides.
Hurricane Enrique moved past the Cabo Corrientes bulge during the night, and slowed slightly as it headed toward a possible run at the southern end of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula as a tropical storm by midweek.
Enrique’s maximum sustained winds were holding around 85 mph early Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
“Weakening is forecasted over the next several days,” the center said. “Enrique is expected to weaken below hurricane intensity by tomorrow, but is still expected to be a tropical storm when it moves near the southern Baja California Peninsula on Wednesday.”
On Monday, the storm’s core was about 65 miles west of Cabo Corrientes — the bulge on the coast south of Puerto Vallarta — and moving north-northwest at 5 mph.
The hurricane center said Enrique could drop 6 to 12 inches of rain, with isolated maximums of 18 inches, over Colima state and coastal sections of the states of Jalisco, Michoacan and northern Guerrero.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Playa Perula to Cabo Corrientes. A tropical-storm warning was posted from Punta San Telmo to Playa Perula and from Cabo Corrientes to Punta Mita.
Mexico’s Defense Department has said troops were being deployed to aid civilians in advance of the storm.
In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Danny formed Monday afternoon off South Carolina’s coast, and forecasters said the storm is expected to race inland over the U.S. Southeast while dumping several inches of rain in some spots.
The fourth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season formed close to South Carolina’s coast and had top sustained winds of 40 mph with higher guests.
Tropical-storm-force winds were already being felt in South Carolina on Monday afternoon. A weather station at Folly Beach — just outside Charleston — recorded a wind gust of 41 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
At 3 p.m., the storm was about 45 miles southeast of Charleston, the hurricane center said.
The storm was headed to the west-northwest at 16 mph and was expected to dump several inches of rain on some parts of South Carolina and Georgia during its trek inland.
Danny emerged from a tropical depression off the coast, and forecasters said rapid weakening is expected after landfall.
A tropical-storm warning was posted earlier Monday for a swath of the Southeast coast from Edisto Beach to South Santee River, South Carolina.
The storm could produce between 1 and 3 inches of rain, with higher amounts in some coastal areas.
In Savannah, Georgia, all systems were go for Tuesday night’s Savannah Bananas home baseball game as organizers eyed the storm. Officials for the collegiate summer league team planned to cover the field with tarp on Monday in preparation for the game.
“For us, being on the coast and being in Savannah, we get some nasty pop-up storms that can dump an inch of rain in just a few hours,” Bananas President Jared Orton said Monday.
“This one doesn’t look like much more than just a nice, passing day of rain. I think we’re good to go as long as the sun comes out tomorrow and it should be a beautiful night in Savannah, I would think.”
